I play on MAX, I play on AMD

[Phynaz]

Whatever happened to AMD's plans for a "Super APU" that was basically a 300W full-on CPU + discrete card together? Is that still in the works? Zen core, some uber GPU core, and HBM(2?)?

Edit: Do you think that MS and Sony will help AMD to stay afloat until then, or is one of them most likely to pick over AMD's carcass, if they let them die? (But then wouldn't they lose their x86 license, and lose compatibility with existing consoles?)

There was no such plan.

Besides, it would be far out of your price range.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There was no such plan.

Pretty sure that it was reported here that AMD was considering it.

Besides, it would be far out of your price range.

I'm not sure what "my price range" has anything to do with this discussion, other than as a thinly veiled attempt at an insult.

Considering that my rigs have fairly mid-high discrete GPUs, I don't even think that's all that accurate. It's not like I'm an APU gamer. But if AMD came out with a "Super APU", with the power of a Haswell quad combined with a 7950 or R9 290 worth of GPU power, I would certainly consider it.

 

[TheELF]

The "super apu" is basically the zen apu and some people here argued that it would be ~ 300W full-on CPU + discrete card together.

I don't think he was specifically talking to you about the price range,it will just be way too expensive for anyone to considere it a viable alternative.

 

[Phynaz]

Pretty sure that it was reported here that AMD was considering it.

It was something made up on the Internet.

Let's face it, you are obsessed with cheap hardware, you aren't in the market for a $900 CPU.

 

[cbn]

It was something made up on the Internet.

Here was news post that repored on this info.

 

[cbn]

I think Nvidia will still do it because 384 Maxwell cores with 64 bit GDDR5 is still going to be faster than most iGPUs.

Actually even a 256 Maxwell core 64 bit DDR3 will still find use because there are even some new computers that don't have an iGPU.

This, not to mention, all the older computers out there as well with very slow iGPUs.

a "Tegra X1" GPU card would be quite good for a cheap card, better perf than most Intel IGPs and HEVC/HDMI 2.0, sounds good.

That would be pretty nice because that IP is on 20nm and also has LPDDR4, whereas GM108 is on 28nm and does not have HEVC and HDMI 2.0 AFAIK.

So I wonder if they end up reusing GM108 for desktop? Or make a up a new low end card with those advanced features (from Tegra X1) you mentioned?

GM108 (28nm) with 384 Maxwell 1 cores, 24 TMU, 8 ROPs, 64 bit GDDR5
GM108 (28nm) with 256 Maxwell 1 cores, 16 TMU, 8 ROPS, 64 bit DDR3 1600

vs.

"Tegra X1 dGPU" (20nm) with 256 Maxwell 2 cores, 16 TMU, 16 ROPs, 64 bit LPDDR4 3200 ( also comes with HDMI 2.0 and HEVC)

 

[Phynaz]

Here was news post that repored on this info.

Like I said, made up on the internet. Show me something from AMD.

 

[cbn]

Here was news post that repored on this info.

Like I said, made up on the internet. Show me something from AMD.

Look at the second to last slide from the second link:

"Smooth and efficient transition from dGPU to SoC"

Notice how the chart shows Server CPU and FirePro Graphics merging into a HPC APU.

 

[Phynaz]

I see a fuzzy slide that says nothing about an actual product. Can you find the deck it's from on AMD's site? No? Probably fake.

 

[cbn]

I see a fuzzy slide that says nothing about an actual product. Can you find the deck it's from on AMD's site? No? Probably fake.

The link claims Junji Hayashi gave the talk and according to Linkedin he indeed works for AMD :

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/junji-hayashi/3/a68/7ba

P.S. Here is a larger shot of the slide:

 

[Phynaz]

The link claims

I rest my case.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Let's face it, you are obsessed with cheap hardware, you aren't in the market for a $900 CPU.

My 7950 3GB HIS video card was $130, an AMD quad-core CPU/APU is around $80-130, I guess I was assuming that a "Super APU" that combined them, would cost around $300. If it costs $900, well, that's definitely a problem. (That's like 980ti + i5-6600K territory, price-wise.)

 

[mrmt]

My 7950 3GB HIS video card was $130, an AMD quad-core CPU/APU is around $80-130, I guess I was assuming that a "Super APU" that combined them, would cost around $300. If it costs $900, well, that's definitely a problem. (That's like 980ti + i5-6600K territory, price-wise.)

AMD current prices are not sustainable.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Ugh.

AMD's Junji Hayashi, from the second article linked by cbn (beat me to it, thanks):

For example, the top-level GPU of Hawaii are equipped with 44GCN core (CU), it is the APU Kaveri is not can only be installed 8GCN core. While this is because there is a restriction of power consumption and chip area, so as to the graphics portion of the CPU core of the server chip and a high-end GPU can easily be combined, and is a plan to make an APU for high-end HPC . Power consumption is as large as 200-300W, it is seen as the performance is high, such as in the supercomputer there is merit.

Attack slides all you want. The guy came out on stage at the PC Cluster Consortium and said the above.

 

[VirtualLarry]

AMD current prices are not sustainable.

I don't see why not; as long as they get a die shrink soon, and therefore, are not spending as much silicon area for that performance.

 

[Phynaz]

AMD isnt getting a die shrink. Unless you known something we don't, Zen is a new CPU, not a shrink.

 

[VirtualLarry]

AMD isnt getting a die shrink. Unless you known something we don't, Zen is a new CPU, not a shrink.

There was some rumbling about a 14nm Excavator-based FX CPU. Though I have no idea how accurate that one would be.

Think about it though. AMD has to keep supplying APUs to the market. Zen, at least in its first incarnation, will be a CPU only, not an APU. So is AMD going to go back to only selling CPUs for a year, and lose the market momentum from selling APUs? I highly doubt that. So I feel that the possibility of a die-shrunk APU based on XV cores might be in the pipeline.

It may go the same way that the 20nm cat core-based APUs / SoCs went, who knows.

 

[erunion]

There was some rumbling about a 14nm Excavator-based FX CPU. Though I have no idea how accurate that one would be.

Think about it though. AMD has to keep supplying APUs to the market. Zen, at least in its first incarnation, will be a CPU only, not an APU. So is AMD going to go back to only selling CPUs for a year, and lose the market momentum from selling APUs? I highly doubt that. So I feel that the possibility of a die-shrunk APU based on XV cores might be in the pipeline.

It may go the same way that the 20nm cat core-based APUs / SoCs went, who knows.

Absolutely not.

Its clear that Bristol Ridge is AMD's 2016 APU and is still 28nm.

http://wccftech.com/amd-bristol-ridge-excavator-architecture-slides/.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Absolutely not.

Its clear that Bristol Ridge is AMD's 2016 APU and is still 28nm.

http://wccftech.com/amd-bristol-ridge-excavator-architecture-slides/.

Interesting. So there IS a new APU coming in 2016, but sadly, looks like rumors point to 28nm still. But if it's on FM3 / AM4, will that socket continue forward, and allow the Zen+ APU to just "drop in"? That could be pretty sweet, and seed the market. I assume it will use DDR4 then?

 

[AtenRa]

Absolutely not.

Its clear that Bristol Ridge is AMD's 2016 APU and is still 28nm.

http://wccftech.com/amd-bristol-ridge-excavator-architecture-slides/.

That data is obsolete, 2016 desktop socket is AM4 and Mobile FP4.

Also, 2016 APUs are 7th Gen for both Desktop and Mobile .
2015 Desktop APU Kaveri is 5th Gen and Mobile Carrizo is 6th Gen.

 

[AtenRa]

Interesting. So there IS a new APU coming in 2016, but sadly, looks like rumors point to 28nm still. But if it's on FM3 / AM4, will that socket continue forward, and allow the Zen+ APU to just "drop in"? That could be pretty sweet, and seed the market. I assume it will use DDR4 then?

Since ZEN (no-iGPU) and 7th GEN APUs will be AM4(2016) , ZEN APUs will use the same socket in 2017.

 

[cbn]

For those APU users with Micro-ATX or ATX boards (especially the A88X with eight SATA ports), I'm thinking a project like the following would be very useful:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=42958.0

(Basically a easy to follow standardized multi-usage build.....but specifically for FM2+ users)

For the APU, it could be the A8-7670K and then whatever FM2+ board works the best.

The as time goes on additional video cards (for VMs) and hardware could be added.

So it could very well start off as a relatively cheap device for certain users....but with a roadmap for expansion into other uses.

I ended up responding to that Lime Tech thread with my suggestion.

Another option besides what I mentioned (and in keeping with the theme of this thread) would be to use the APU iGPU for the SteamOS VM and maybe the super cheap (when on sale) $10 AR Powercolor HD 5450 for the OpenELEC VM.

P.S. I also made the following thread to help identify IOMMU capable FM2+ motherboards necessary for that project:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2451994

 

[DrMrLordX]

wrt Bristol Ridge, nobody knows what it's going to be. The first leaks said 28nm 2m/4t XV + 512 GCN 1.2 shaders. Looking at the latest 28nm improvements, that might not be too bad provided they avoid HDL libraries.

A 14nm shrink of XV for Bristol Ridge is a nice thought and would make an excellent test product for the node, but I see no clear sign that AMD will release such a chip, much less a 14nm XV 4m/8t FX processor (Nosta's fever dreams notwithstanding).

With the introduction of the R-series Carrizo BGA chips, we see that AMD is finally prepared to bring Carrizo to the desktop in some form besides repurposed notebook hardware in a desktop/AiO chassis. The R-series would be a pretty good bridge product between Carrizo as it is now and Bristol Ridge; R-series relies on FP4, and it supports DDR4.

 

[cbn]

Not sure if this was posted in another thread, but according to this Biostar CPU compatibility list there are some new FM2+ processors coming:

http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=788#cpu

A10-8850B with 3.9 Ghz base clock and 512sp iGPU @ 800 Mhz (65W TDP) --> http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bulldozer/AMD-A10-Series A10 PRO-8850B.html

A10-7890K with 4.1 Ghz base clock (up 200 Mhz from the A10-7870k)

Athlon x4 880K with 4.0 Ghz base clock (up 100 Mhz from the 870K and 300 Mhz from the 860K)

A10-7690K with 3.7 Ghz base clock (same base clock as Athlon x 4 860K, and 100 Mhz faster than A8-7670K)

A6-7470K with 3.7 Ghz base clock (up 200 Mhz from the A6-7400K.)

P.S. Of all those changes that were made, I would be most happy if the iGPU on the A6-7470K was upgraded from 256sp to 384sp.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Those are known and reported. I've been waiting for the 7890k to see how much it'll cost and decide whether or not I want to get one.